A recent column in The Sunday Times Argus touts the benefits of electric cars and makes many great points about why switching to an electric vehicle is good for the wallet and the environment.

What that article — and many others of its kind — fails to address is that getting from Point A to Point B shouldn’t automatically mean getting into a car of the fossil fuel variety or the electric variety. If we truly want to implement changes to our carbon footprint, thinking outside the car box is required. Perhaps the state of Vermont should be investing in infrastructure that encourages more people to ride bicycles. Perhaps bus service should be improved. Maybe rethinking rail travel is needed. How about car sharing and ride sharing?

We are a rural state and distance and weather dictate choices we make in transportation. But suggesting that the only alternative to a car fueled with gasoline is a car powered by batteries doesn’t embrace a myriad of potential options that ought to be part of our conversation.